Monday, May 26, 2014

No, not that kind of agent

If you had five minutes to sit down with an experienced
literary agent and ask anything, what would you ask? I recently posed this question to my writer
friends on Facebook, and the questions came in quickly. Here’s the first batch:

What is your biggest draw when it comes to signing someone?

I think every aspiring author asks this question sooner or
later, in one way or another, and they’re hoping to divine the ONE secret thing
that will make them rich and famous. And I always disappoint, because I don’t
believe that such a singular “secret of the ages” really exists. But when
pressed, I generally narrow it down to four things:

Friday, May 2, 2014

From my friend Kathy Ide, the Editor of Editors. She has instructed and inspired thousands of aspiring writers over the course of her long career. The following is an excerpt from her recently released Proofreading Secrets of
Best-Selling Authors.

Have you
seen the plaques and T-shirts that say this?:

Let’s
Eat Grandma.

Let’s Eat, Grandma.Commas Save Lives.

I love
that! It shows how one tiny bit of punctuation can change the entire meaning
and tone of a sentence.

About Me

AAR-member agent.
.________________________________
I was born in 1962 in an old Spanish colony on the coast of California. They called it "The Village of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels," in honor of Mary the mother of Jesus. Never heard of it? Oh, silly me. Like most people, you probably know it by its abbreviated name in Spanish: Los Angeles.
I grew up somewhere between the gleaming glass towers of Bunker Hill and the bright lights of Hollywood. I was a storyteller almost from birth; poems, articles, business letters, whatever. But like almost all writers, I kept a day job; in-between gigs I found gainful employment as a clerk typist, vitamin buyer, waiter, fundraiser, prep cook, gardener, lifeguard, bookkeeper, grocery checker, printer's apprentice, and meat cutter.
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In time I had a couple of books published. One thing led to another, I edited books for others and managed a writers’ conference, making many valuable contacts along the way. As an agent I made my first sale in only five months; so I think I will stick with this for a while.Swimming, gardening, and cooking keep my hands busy in-between.